Bitter Fruit

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Pennsylvania, founded (with some historical doubts on the subject) in 1740 is and has traditionally been, an Ivy School. Of late, however (let's say 1939), Penn has dubiously begun to win football games. Football and Penn have become synonymous with "large city school and amateur professionalism" in that sport. Today they are embarking on a great new career of intersectional mayhem, opening with California at Philadelphia. Two great states are meeting, carrying with them not only intersectional football implications, but the political ambitions of a nationally minded University president . . .

It can happen here. It doesn't take much--rousing first page stories of courage and heroism, lousy won-lost records, misdirected journalistic appeals to University spirit, a strong and vocal Alumni . . . it's surprising just how little it takes and how far it goes without ever quite realizing that a line has been crossed or a barricade breasted.

You must find yourselves in a ridiculous position. And the hell of it is, it isn't your fault. As the University organ of the undergraduate body you are required to reflect the usual undergraduate headline activities--the Saturday football game included. As human beings of some intelligence, you must also realize that your are exciting a lot of fuss over an admittedly well-meaning but inept ball club. And as human beings of sensitivity you must also realize the price that must be paid by the large university for a winning ball club. Sometimes it is simply no more nor less than academic integrity. Quite an exacting price. So there you sit: impaled on the horns of a dilemma. Be honest, excite your students and agitate for good football. Pay the knowing tribute. Or, treat the Saturday efforts completely realistically, tell the students to bring a bottle to the field and at least have a good drunk to show for their Saturday afternoon. Or, be aloof, forget the game in the Saturday columns. Be practical, only bring the CRIMSON out five days a week.

Or be of real service to your university. Fight and win rationalism in athletic policies. Demand schedules capable of producing wins--and if your pride suffers from the weekly battles with minute colleges, really wise up and get your football on an intramural basis--drop it intercollegiately. Sure, that's a big step. But Harvard is a big school.

I know that once Harvard teams were the talk of the country and the scourge of the East. That was in a long ago that might never be again. It will never be again judging from the present tendencies of other colleges. Realize that the past does not lie ahead. Build for a future where the college fulfills its time-honored function of the education of minds. Honor the body with exercise better calculated to preserve it. Develop competitive spirit and courage on other fields than those that bear this bitter fruit. Michael A. Weinberg IG